The navigation model for a website should evolve, in at least some significant sense, in parallel with its taxonomy (which is represented visually by some form of network diagram such as a sitemap or spider diagram) and the wireframes.
Getting the navigation model right for a site is very important, although increasingly site visitors are using (and sites are providing) much better search functionality, meaning that huge, and detailed layers of navigation are being seen less and less often.
And of course there is the school of thought that says if you have a really good search facility, you don't need navigation at all. Deconstruct tried it on their site. It was just irritating...
Much more interesting - at least to me - is the recent rise of models that combine the navigation and search metaphors, in for example faceted browsing navigtion models; and those sites that dispense with hierarchy of any kind and turn to serendipity instead. |
